Hand dryers, wherein the hands of a user are dried by a stream of flowing heated air, are very popular. Hand dryers eliminate the need for towels. Also, eliminating the use of towels minimizes the spread of germs from one user to another, and helps protect the environment by reducing the number of trees having to be sacrificed for paper towels.
Unfortunately, known hand dryers typically are large, bulky machines which are permanently hard wired at a specific location. A truly portable hand dryer has hitherto not been developed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a truly portable hand dryer.
The invention satisfies this need. In one embodiment, the invention is a hand dryer comprising (a) a housing having an upper end, a lower end, a rear wall, an air inlet opening and a downwardly directed air outlet opening, (b) an electric air blower disposed within the housing, the air blower having an air inlet side and an air discharge side, and (c) air passageways disposed within the housing connecting the air inlet side of the air blower to the air inlet opening of the housing and connecting the air discharge side of the air blower to the air outlet opening of the housing, wherein power for the electric air blower is provided via a male plug having at least two prongs, the male plug being attached to, and projecting outwardly from, the rear wall of the housing, the male plug being sized and dimensioned to plug into a standard household electrical power receptacle, wherein the portable hand dryer weighs less than about 16 ounces, and wherein the housing is adapted to be solely supported from a standard pair of vertically arranged 3-way household electrical outlets, including an upper outlet and a lower outlet, both the upper outlet and the lower outlet comprising a pair of current conducting female connectors and a single female ground connector, the housing being capable of being solely supported from the pair of 3-way outlets by (i) the frictional and mechanical forces existing between the two current conducting female connectors of the upper outlet and the male plug and (ii) the frictional forces between the female ground connector of the lower outlet and a distal prong attached to, and projecting outwardly from, the rearward wall of the housing.
In another embodiment, the invention is a hand dryer comprising (a) a housing having an upper end, a lower end, a rear wall, an air inlet opening disposed in the rear wall and a downwardly directed air outlet opening, (b) an electric air blower disposed within the housing, the air blower having an air inlet side and an air discharge side, and (c) air passageways disposed within the housing connecting the air inlet side of the air blower to the air inlet opening of the housing and connecting the air discharge side of the air blower to the air outlet opening of the housing, wherein power for the electric air blower is provided via a male plug having at least two prongs, the male plug being attached to, and projecting outwardly from, the rear wall of the housing, the male plug being sized and dimensioned to plug into a standard household electrical power receptacle, wherein the portable hand dryer weighs less than about 16 ounces so that the portable hand dryer is capable of being supported on a structure wall solely by frictional and mechanical forces existing between the portable band dryer and one or more standard household electrical receptacles disposed in the structure wall, and wherein a spacer is disposed on the rear wall to separate the rear wall from a structure wall when the portable hand dryer is disposed on the structure wall.
In still another embodiment, the invention is a hand dryer comprising (a) a housing having an upper end, a lower end, a rear wall, an air inlet opening and a downwardly directed air outlet opening, (b) an electric air blower disposed within the housing, the air blower having an air inlet side and an air discharge side, and (c) air passageways disposed within the housing connecting the air inlet side of the air blower to the air inlet opening of the housing and connecting the air discharge side of the air blower to the air outlet opening of the housing, wherein power for the electric air blower is provided via a male plug having at least two prongs, the male plug being attached to, and projecting outwardly from, the rear wall of the housing, the male plug being sized and dimensioned to plug into a standard household electrical power receptacle, wherein the portable hand dryer weighs less than about 16 ounces so that the portable hand dryer is capable of being supported on a structure wall solely by the frictional and mechanical forces existing between the portable hand dryer and one or more standard household electrical power receptacles, and wherein the at least two prongs of the male plug are rotatable between (i) a first plug position wherein the at least two prongs project outwardly from the rear wall of the housing, and (ii) a second plug position wherein the at least two prongs do not project outwardly from the rear wall of the housing.